Gonzales pawned jewellery, court told

May 6, 2004 — 10.00am

In the months after the murders of his parents, Sef Gonzales sold their cars and pawned his mother's jewellery - then put a deposit on a $173,000 Lexus car.

Gonzales told the dealership he would be using his inheritance to pay for the vehicle. He said he had already put a deposit on a Porsche but was having second thoughts because he felt the car was impractical, the NSW Supreme Court heard yesterday.

The owner of a pawn shop told how he paid Gonzales for pearl rings and necklaces and a Longines watch, which the court has heard belonged to his mother.

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Gonzales sold his mother's Celica, telling the buyer he had cancer and needed the money to go overseas for treatment.

The Crown has alleged part of the reason Gonzales murdered his father Teddy, mother Mary Loiva and sister Clodine in July 2001 was to gain access to the $1.2 million estate.

The Crown also alleged Gonzales faked his own abduction and was found lying in a Chatswood street feigning amnesia.

Gonzales told police he had received two threatening emails, one which had self destructed when he opened it and another which said in part: "Make it easy on yourself, confess to the police. Don't talk to the media."

On March 31, 2002, Gonzales was interviewed by a television station. Later that night, he claimed, he was pulled into a car and had his head covered with a plastic bag. "I was thrashing my arms around an trying to stand up," he told police. "I was finding it hard to breathe, sucking it [the plastic bag] in and out of my mouth."

Gonzales claimed the assailants told him to take back the reward he had offered and not to contact the media while they hit him across the head with what he thought was a piece of wood.

At 8.30pm a man walking to his car found Gonzales lying in a gutter in Chatswood. A plastic bag was lying next to him.

When asked if he was all right, Gonzales said he could not breathe and was hurting. He began asking for his father.

An ambulance took him to Royal North Shore Hospital where he appeared not to remember his name, or what year it was. There was no evidence of head trauma, the doctor who treated him told police.